Available in English for the first time, a collection of deeply humane stories depicting marginalized populations by one of the greatest South American writers of the 20th century.
Julio Ram n Ribeyro (1929-1994) was a Peruvian writer of short stories, novels, essays, and plays. He was considered to be a master of the short story, and his works are known for mixing social criticism and fantasy. Riberyo was the author of eight volumes of short stories, including Los gallinazos sin plumas ("Featherless Buzzards," 1955). He lived most of his life in France, and made brief returns to Peru. Katherine Silver is an award-winning literary translator and the co-director of the Banff International Literary Translation Centre (BILTC). She has translated works by Daniel Sada, Cesar Aira, Horacio Castellanos Moya, Ernesto Mallo, and Carla Guelfenbein, among others. She lives in Berkeley, California.
"The late Peruvian writer's knack for the uncanny is on display in
these gripping stories culled from a body of work spanning 40 years
. . . [T]hese pieces dig into the human psyche with sharpness and
wit." -Publishers Weekly
"Sometimes bleak, sometimes warily humorous . . . Ribeyro's stories
often offer unexpected twists, their characters mysteriously
disappearing in a flurry of snow or puffs of smoke . . . A welcome
selection of prose that introduces a Latin American master to
English-language audiences." -Kirkus
"A magnificent storyteller, one of the best of Latin America and
probably of the Spanish language, unjustly not recognized as such."
-Mario Vargas Llosa
"Elegance in the formal design skillfully contains the chaotic
lives of Ribeyro's characters. As author, he strikes the required
distance enabling him to situate best these refined tales in which
shame, humiliation, unbridled lust, infatuation, or plain
derangement throb just beneath the skin of his creations." -Paddy
Kehoe, RTE
"Ribeyro writes a painting, or linguistically paints a scene in
which quiet gestures . . . communicate as much if not more than the
textually explicit or the explicitly textual." -Letras
Hispanas
"Despite the downbeat nature of some of the stories, there is also
a dry humour, particularly in stories which skewer societal norms
and relationships . . . There are usually no happy endings for
Ribeyro's characters, but nevertheless the stories are absorbing,
wonderful and unforgettable." -Kaggsy's Bookish Ramblings
"The lives of these minor characters (victims of modernity), and
their circumstances, give Ribeyro's stories a unique perspective
that will make you think twice about the untold stories of the
cashier you always run into at the store. . . . Ribeyro portrays
his characters with such affection, sympathy, and humor that you
will not feel that their bad luck and misery is a tragedy."
-Christina Soto van der Plas, Public Books
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